Set up the Speech Recognition feature by following steps:
1. Firstly, click the Start Speech Recognition link in the Speech Recognition Control Panel window which can opened by selecting Start>Control Panel>Ease of Access>Speech Recognition. Now Windows 7 shows a Welcome to Speech Recognition dialog box.
2. Now click ‘Next’ and then in the Select the Type of Microphone choose the Headset Microphone, Desktop Microphone or Other option.
3. Click ‘Next’ and then bring the microphone connected to your Windows 7 computer or laptop next to your mouth and again click Next in the Set Up Your Microphone dialog box.
4. Now say anything in a normal voice and then, when you finish speaking into the microphone, click ‘Next’.
5. Click ‘Next’ in the ‘Your Microphone Is Now Set Up’ dialog box and choose the ‘Enable Document Review’ option in the ‘Improve Speech Recognition Accuracy’ dialog box and then again click ‘Next’.
The Choose an Activation Mode window appears. By default, Windows Speech Recognition chooses the manual activation mode whereby speech recognition turns off when you say “stop listening” and then must be manually turned ON either by pressing Ctrl+Q on your keyboard or by clicking the Microphone button in the Speech Recognition toolbar. If you choose the Use Voice Activation Mode option then you can reactivate speech recognition easily by saying “start listening” into your microphone.
6. Now to turn on Voice Activation mode, you need to click the ‘Use Voice Activation’ Mode
option button before you click ‘Next’ and the Print the Speech Reference Card window appears. This window has a common Speech Recognition commands which includes such topics as how to choose items on the screen, select commands and dictate text.
7. Click the ‘View Reference Sheet’ button to open a Windows Help and Support window on your Windows 7 computer or laptop.
8. Now click the topics such as Dictation, Punctuation Marks, Common Speech Recognition Commands and Special Characters to show their information. If you want to print any of these expanded help topics then click the Print button on the window’s toolbar.
9. Click the ‘Close’ button which is in the Windows Help and Support window and then click the ‘Next’ button to open the ‘Run Speech Recognition Every Time I Start the Computer’ dialog box.
Windows 7 by default chooses the ‘Run Speech Recognition at Startup’ check box. If you don’t want Windows to automatically start the Speech Recognition feature each time you logon to Windows 7, you need to deselect this check box before you proceed.
10. Now to open the ‘You Can Now Control This Computer By Voice’ dialog box, click the ‘Next’ button.
11. To run the Speech Recognition Tutorial, which is both necessary to train the computer to understand your voice as well as being very good for practice click the ‘Start Tutorial’ button.

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